Medical Marijuana Essay: Marijuana is medicine. It has been used for thousands of years to treat a wide variety of ailments. Marijuana, also known as Cannabis sativa L., was legal in the United States for all purposes – industrial, recreational, and medicinal – until 1937.
Today, only eight Americans are legally allowed to use marijuana as medicine. NORML is working to restore marijuana’s availability as medicine. Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known. No one has ever died from an overdose. It is also extremely versatile.
Four of its general therapeutic applications include relief from nausea and an increase in appetite, reduction of intraocular pressure, reduction of muscle spasms, and relief from mild to moderate chronic pain. Marijuana is often useful in the treatment of the following conditions: cancer, AIDS, and glaucoma. Marijuana alleviates the nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite caused by chemotherapy treatment in cancer patients. It also alleviates the nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite caused by the disease itself and by treatment with AZT and other drugs in AIDS patients. Additionally, marijuana reduces intraocular pressure, alleviating the pain and slowing or halting the progress of glaucoma. Glaucoma, which damages vision by gradually increasing eye pressure over time, is the leading cause of blindness in the United States.
Multiple Sclerosis: Marijuana reduces muscle pain and spasticity caused by the disease. It may also relieve tremors, unsteadiness of gait, and help some patients with bladder control. Multiple sclerosis is the leading cause of neurological disability among young and middle-aged adults in the United States.
Epilepsy: Marijuana prevents epileptic seizures in some patients.
Chronic Pain: Marijuana reduces chronic, often debilitating pain caused by a variety of injuries and disorders. Each of these uses has been recognized as legitimate at least once by various courts, legislatures, government, or scientific agencies throughout the United States.
Currently, respected organizations such as the National Academy of Sciences (1982), the California Medical Association (1993), the Federation of American Scientists (1994), the Australian Commonwealth Department of Human Services and Health (1994), the American Public Health Association (1995), the San Francisco Medical Society (1996), the California Academy of Family Physicians (1996), and several state nursing associations have supported the use of marijuana as medicine. Anecdotal evidence suggests that marijuana is effective in treating arthritis, migraine headaches, pruritis, menstrual cramps, alcohol and opiate addiction, depression, and other mood disorders. Marijuana could benefit up to five million patients in the United States. However, except for the eight individuals given special permission by the federal government, marijuana remains illegal as medicine. Individuals suffering from any of the aforementioned ailments, for whom standard legal medical alternatives have not been safe or effective, are left with two choices: continue to suffer from the effects of the disease, or obtain marijuana illegally and risk potential consequences, including an insufficient supply due to prohibition-inflated price or unavailability, impure or contaminated marijuana, and arrests, fines, court costs, property forfeiture, incarceration, probation, and criminal records. Background: The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 established the federal prohibition of marijuana.
Dr. William C. Woodward of the American Medical Association testified against the Act, arguing that it would ultimately prevent any medicinal use of marijuana. The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 established five categories, or schedules,” into which all illicit and prescription drugs were placed.
Marijuana was placed in Schedule I, which defines the substance as having a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision. However, at the time of the Controlled Substances Act, marijuana had been illegal for more than 30 years. Its medicinal uses had been forgotten and its “reefer madness” stigma was still prevalent. Marijuana’s medicinal uses were rediscovered as a result of the tremendous increase in the number of recreational users in the 1970s. Marijuana’s popularity compelled many scientists to study its health effects.
They subsequently discovered marijuana’s remarkable history as a medicine, inspiring many studies of its therapeutic potential. Many recreational users who also happened to be afflicted with conditions for which marijuana has therapeutic potential inadvertently discovered its medicinal benefits. As the news spread, the number of patients illegally using marijuana medicinally began to increase. However, because marijuana is a Schedule I substance, doctors were not allowed to prescribe it, and research approval and funding were severely restricted.
